


The Tales of Keela

by harmonyhobi



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9179332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmonyhobi/pseuds/harmonyhobi
Summary: Shocking news, searching, false hopes, crushed dreams, expectations, reality.Those are the tales of Keela.





	1. Prologue

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie and wondered: what if? What if it was all real? What if it wasn’t all made up solely for the reader’s entertainment? What if there really are wizards in some far away city in England, what if there are mermaids who can lure sailors to the lowest point of the ocean? I’ve often wondered, have often considered and pondered the possibilities of there being other beings that scientists could never explain.

I always knew I was different. Not because I was some kind of weird alien or the next Superman. I just instantly knew I was different the day I started kindergarten and arrived at school with my moms and all the other kids stared at us. The children didn’t understand this, they thought it was abnormal. They had grown up with a mommy and a daddy, while I hadn’t. For years, I remember being insulted for this by my classmates while the teacher wasn’t looking and I kept acting like I didn’t care much about it, but really at the end of the day when I got home, I would get there with tears rolling down my cheeks and my parents would console me. Looking back at it now, I find it funny how kids that young could be so cruel already. That sort of bullying went on for a little bit, but after a while, people grew out of it and realized their words wouldn’t impact me, but that was just the facade I put on. In reality, every word felt like a needle jabbed into my heart, and with the first few needles, it didn’t hurt me nor scar me, but the others did, some more than others. By that time, I was a big sister to a toddler named Mitchell, who went from wobbling on his lower limbs to starting school himself. And my curse got cast upon him, because he had to go through the same charade, children insulting our moms, making fun of him, and Mitchell couldn’t put up a disguise like I had. He would start sobbing at school and countless times the telephone rang with the teacher on the other line, telling one of my guardians to come pick their son up. I grew protective of him, engaging the big sister role. 

As I started to grow up mentally and physically, constantly having to buy new clothes and shoes, I discovered a book called the Tales of Lynn, which blew me away completely and started my obsession with fantasy and everything surrounding it. I used to stay up until the late hours of the night during the weekends, sneakily reading books I found at the school library that just had the word fantasy somewhere in the title. Most of the time though, those books weren’t much help and just talked about the characteristics of fantasy when what I wanted to know was if there were humans who had powers, who could fly or turn invisible. When my mom, Aurora, told me to look it up online, I typed a few words into the search bar and tons of results popped up before my eyes. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that people could make up anything online, so I sucked it all up, every piece of information fueling my curiosity and excitement. I talked about it with this girl who had to sit next to me at school and she seemed to want to escape me, like she was trapped prey. Let’s just say we never really clicked. It’s when I saw a lonely girl in the schoolyard reading the Tales of Lynn that I freaked out and walked over to her immediately. Long story short, we became best friends and we would discuss multiple theories we had read online about super humans. One fateful day though, my mom popped our huge bubble by telling us the truth: people could invent stuff online, they could invent having seen someone fly or seen someone dissolve into thin air in front of them. I was stunned and I finally realized that my childhood fantasies would never happen. And that’s where my story started, down this rabbit hole I can’t get out of.


	2. Chapter 1

The bell rang. I picked up my things, walking out of the class into the sea of people crowding the halls. It was final season, and I was finally about to finish my junior year. I felt a hand touch my elbow and I turned around to see Ana. Even though she was tiny compared to most people, she somehow could always find me through any crowd. We walked to our lockers, which were next to one another, and both grabbed our lunch and rushed to the cafeteria. We sat at our usual table and proceeded to eat lunch. I saw a huge physics book next to Ana and I widened my eyes. She saw me and finished chewing.

 “Just some light reading I brought along”

I looked at her, absolutely in shock. She couldn’t be serious, could she? She saw my expression and let out a cackle.

“I’m absolutely kidding; this stuff is so boring. I’m obligated to read it for my final.” She passed her hand through her puffy hair and sighed. “I can’t wait to finish high school.”

I cupped my hands around my mouth and let out a loud and prolonged “Loser”. Ana looked up at me and gave me a look that said “Really?”. She ended up bursting into laughter and so did I. Everything was normal.

I got home and got greeted by Mitchell sitting on the kitchen counter eating an ice cream sandwich. I walked to my room and threw my backpack on my bed. I had to study, but I only wanted to resume a painting I had been working on for some months now. It was this painting of a girl, rolled into a ball as everything around her was flying everywhere. Her dreams, her possessions, her friends, everything was scattered around her, yet you could see in her eyes that there was a light of hope. Ana had asked me if it was representative of something personal to me, but really, it wasn’t. I just liked the message behind it, of how everything could just crumble in an instant, but that it could fix itself and that you could get back up. I grabbed my phone, put on my earphones and put on some music. I uncapped a tube of paint, put it on my palette, and dipped my brush in. I did one stroke, then two, then three, then four.

 

I completely got absorbed into painting, like I had never before and after three hours of switching between paintbrushes and dipping and strokes, I was done. I backed up, looking at the completed work. I was in awe with myself. It looked perfect, just like I had envisioned it. My stomach grumbled, a reminder I hadn’t eaten anything yet. I got up, exhausted, and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. When I got there, my moms and my brother were sitting at the table, looking at me kind of sadly. There were papers and pictures scattered all around the surface of the dining table.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, growing more and more worried by the second.

“Come sit down, love.”

I slowly walked to the table, feeling on edge. What had happened? Why was everyone looking as if they had just seen a ghost, or maybe even a couple? Aurora, my mom, looked at her wife, and then she looked back at me, taking a deep breath in and out.

“We’ve wanted to talk about this for a long time with you.”

“What’s up? Are we moving to like India, or maybe Antarctica?”

Heather, my other mother, let out a small laugh. I had somewhat broken the tension, which I was proud of.

“Just come and sit here next to me” said Heather.

I sat next to them as they showed me a picture.

I looked at the woman, holding a baby in front of her. Even though you couldn’t see the woman’s face, she looked really fond and proud. I stared at the toddler, looking at her features. I lifted my head up and looked at my family.

“She looks like me.”

My parents both nodded their heads slowly, and then told me to flip the picture. I looked at the back of it, only seeing scribbles of the people’s names. “Kaila and Marie Willoughby”

“Why are you showing me this?” I had a bad feeling in my stomach, but I told myself I was wrong. There was no way.

“This is your great-grand-mother. The baby, that is.” Aurora spoke up. “Marie Willoughby.”

My heart suddenly stopped beating. I was in shock. I looked at them, praying that this was some kind of sick twisted joke. They shook their heads, looking back at the name on the picture and me.

“Your full name is Keela Willoughby. Not Keela Thompson.”

That’s when I cracked. I physically felt my heart cracking and crumbling, and anger starting to take ahold of me. I got up ferociously, swinging the chair down on the floor. I shouted horrible words I can’t remember to my “family”. I felt dizzy, probably because I was so mad and kept shouting. I felt the world spinning and then everything went black.

 


	3. Chapter 2

I opened my eyes. I was in my room and the sun was peering through the window, illuminating my bedroom in a faint golden light. I looked around, confused and completely lost as to what had happened the night before. My room was a mess. Everything was on the ground and there was some shattered glass, remnants of a porcelain pig I had on my bedside table that my brother had given to me for my birthday.  I saw my painting, still intact somehow amongst the storm that had hit everything and was relieved. At least it was okay. I got up and my entire body protested against it, feeling so sore it felt like I had run an entire marathon and then had decided to lift some rhinos. I walked over the shattered gift and emerged into the hallway, which was just as messy. Jesus, what had happened here? Had millions of troops materialized in our house and concluded on ransacking the whole house?

 

It’s when I walked into the kitchen that I felt my heart dropping to my feet.

It was pure chaos. Everything, the table, the chairs, the pots and pans were on the floor along with a ton of loose paper and of course, the pictures of my real family. It actually looked like a tornado had appeared out of thin air, decided to have a bit of fun and then left, leaving the house looking like a wreck. I walked around, trying not to step on anything. The drawers and cupboards were all opened, like in every cheesy horror movie and everything that had been in them was on the floor, basically all crushed and broken. Frames that were hanging on the wall with family photos were, surprise, on the floor too. I picked one up, looking at Aurora and Heather and their siblings on their wedding day. 8 months before I was born. I looked around some more, searching for valuable things that had been destroyed. I was still really confused as to what had happened, and also wondering about the whereabouts of my parents and brother. Where were they? It was a Saturday, yet they weren’t home. Had there really been a tornado? Had they been injured, or worse?

 

I walked outside the house, worried that there might have been a cyclone, but alas, our neighborhood was the same old same old. I closed the front door behind me, my head still full of questions. I kneeled down and picked up the pictures of the Willoughby’s. I hadn’t heard that surname before, so I imagined it mustn’t have been common here in America. I fell on the ground, in the middle of all the papers and pictures of my family that my mothers had kept hidden from me for years. I was defeated and exhausted and brought my knees to my chest, tearing up. Everything was in ruins around me. A beautiful image, really. But for me, there was no glimmer of hope in my look.

 

***

 

This time I remember falling asleep, holding one of the few family pictures that was in my possession. Someone awoke me, shaking me lightly. I saw a blue ceiling and then turned my head around to see two big brown eyes staring at me. I jumped and pushed away Ana and she fell off her bed, laughing so hard. I rubbed my eyes, adjusting them to the lighting. I sat up, and looked at Ana to my left, still on the ground cackling. She finally got herself together and sat cross-legged.

“Good morning sleeping beauty. Slept well?”

“I slept like a baby. Wait, when did I get here?” I said, flattening my puffy hair with my hands.

“Oh, about that.”

My best friend glanced at me quickly, with a worried look.

“Why were you laying on the ground in your kitchen that looked like it had been hit by a tornado?”

I swallowed a lump in my throat, remembering the events. The state I had been in for a few seconds where I had forgotten what had occurred was over. I shrugged, looking down at my hands in my lap.

“Keela, what happened?” She put a reassuring hand on my knee. “You can tell me what happened, you know that right?”

I opened my mouth, trying to speak out the words, but I still couldn’t make sense of the situation. I closed my eyes, grabbing the lump of words stuck in my stomach and muttered it out. Ana observed me, clearly not having heard a thing.

“I’m adopted.”

She looked at me, blinking slowly, and I could tell she was analyzing every single word, figuring out what to respond with.

“So your mothers telling you that you were adopted caused an explosion? That sounds like a logical chain of events.”

I chuckled and she smiled proudly.

“Okay, I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but how did you not know you were adopted? You have two moms Keela, it was kind of obvious.”

“I just… I just never really thought about it. I assumed at least one of them was my real mom, and just happened to have a wife.” I shrugged looking at Ana.

She nodded in response and I proceeded.

“Also, gonna be honest here, I haven’t a single clue as to what happened to my house. Nor do I know what happened to my moms and my brother; they were just gone when I woke up.” I added.

Ana laid down and gazed at her ceiling.

“So you’re telling me you got the big news, passed out then woke up to a house in shambles?”

I nodded, then realized she couldn’t see me and I let out a weak response. She stayed there for a few minutes, thinking it all through.

“So, what’s your real name then?” She wondered, eyeing up at me.

“Keela Willoughby.”

My friend suddenly jumped up and rushed outside her room. I waited there, wondering what the fuss was all about and she came back with her dad’s laptop. She turned it on, typed in a few words into Google and scrolled, analyzing absorbedly. She then turned it towards me, showing me a tattered picture. It was a timeworn rock with a bunch of markings, which seemed to be some sort of Greek numerals and it looked like it was atop of a small hill.

 

 I looked confused at Ana. Why was she showing me this random photograph? It had nothing to do with everything I had told her. She seemed to understand my facial expression because she then proceeded to show me the location of the rock. It was in Estes Park, about an hour away from here. I was still incredibly lost and she finally explained.

“I searched Willoughby and this popped up. There must be something, some kind of information there.”

I had to admit, I was curious. I was mad at Aurora and Heather, but interested in knowing who my biological parents were. This was a beginning, a lead, to hopefully more information. I glanced between Ana and the screen, growing more curious by the second. She understood what I meant and got up. She gave me her hand and pulled me off her bed.

“Ms. Willoughby, we’re going on a little adventure.”


	4. Chapter 3

The wind was blowing harshly against my cheek because of our speed and my hair was flying everywhere. I pulled my head back into the car and looked around. We were in the middle of the mountains and the scenery was mind boggling. I had lived in Colorado my entire life yet had never driven around the mountains and I was blown away. There were a billion shades of green and I felt at home, letting my hand dangle out of the open window.

 

My best friend glanced at me and laughed. I frowned at her and then looked at myself in the rear-view mirror. My hair looked like a mane. I flattened it out to the best of my abilities and grabbed a hair tie in my bag.

“Okay, so according to our GPS, we should be there in 10. You ready for this?”

“Well, it’s just an old rock, but it could have some sort of lead to hopefully my still alive parents.” I responded.

She nodded, keeping her eyes on the road. I continued to look around, still so very impressed by this stunning landscape. It really felt like an adventure.

 

***

 

I closed the door behind me. We were in front of a long sinuous path that went upwards and was hidden amongst trees. I put my hands on my hips, looking around and Ana arrived by my side.

“Well. Maybe it won’t be that easy after all.”

“Is anything really easy for us?” I chuckled. “I think we should go to Estes Park, ask around to people, and maybe find someone who could lead us to the rock or knows anything about it.”

 

Next thing you know, we were driving around Estes Park, going to motels and restaurants, questioning the citizens. Nobody seemed to know about the mysterious rock we were looking for. We hopped back into Ana’s car, having given up hope and were driving back home when we hit someone. Hit would be a bit of a stretch as the person went from being in front of the car to behind it, like they passed through it. The tires screeched as Ana and I both panicked. She stormed out the car, looking at the idiot standing behind our car.

“Hey! You! What the hell is your problem?” She stomped up to him, and he just stood there, looking as calm as one could be. I stopped the motor and got out the vehicle, circling the automobile to join them. I waved my hand in front of his face and he blinked and eyed me.

“Sorry.” He looked down at his feet timidly. Clearly he wasn’t the extroverted type.

Ana let out a sarcastic laugh and put a finger on his chest. Well, somewhere close to his chest as he was as tall as the Empire State Building next to her.

“I had the fright of my life, you tall freak.” She passed her hand through her hair, pacing around to calm herself down.

I looked at him decisively. He looked down at me intently, waiting for me to say something.

“Intangibility?” I tried.

From all my searches online with Ana years ago, I knew a lot about super powers and this looked like intangibility to me, because how could any normal human go through a solid object? I told myself I probably sounded crazy to him because he gave me a widened eye look, speechless. I was about to apologize for me sounding like a lunatic when he just slowly nodded his head. I was now the speechless one. I turned around quickly and walked up to Ana who was sitting on the hood of the car, typing ferociously on her cellphone.

“Ana, he’s intangible. He can go through objects.”

Her head shot up suddenly and she stared at me, flabbergasted.

“There’s no way.” She mumbled something else, but I didn’t hear it.

“What’d you say?” I wondered.

“It’s nothing important. I’ll tell you later.” She got up and walked to the stranger.

She apologized for yelling at him and we introduced ourselves. The boy did the same, telling us his name was Yamato. We told him about our quest to find the mysterious rock and he said he had heard of it and we suddenly were really excited. He was our only hope.

“Do you know anyone who knows where it is?”

He nodded slowly, telling us he knew this acquaintance who most likely knew the exact spot where the enigmatic boulder was situated. Ana and I welcomed him to join us and he sat in the back of the car, directing us to his house.

 

We arrived at a shabby looking apartment with no cars in the driveway. Looked like nobody was home.

“My parents are working and my sisters are at school. I had the day off today.”

Yamato lead us to the front door and he just walked through it. Ana and I looked at one another, and I honestly thought he was kind of bragging. I heard a click and the door opened wide to the young man looking proud of himself. I walked in his house, walking past a kitchen and some bedrooms. I arrived in a living room with furniture straight out of the 80’s. I just stood there, waiting for my best friend and the boy. I looked around in the meanwhile, bored out of my mind. I saw one lone picture of him and his family on a wall. I trotted over to it and examined it. He had 2 younger sisters and strict looking parents. I strolled around some more, looking at everything I could find, but the living room was really gloomy and empty.

 

I started questioning what was taking so long. Where were Ana and Yamato? I slowly poked my head out of the doorway, waiting for a sound. I heard faint whispers in the distance and walked towards them, inching carefully towards the murmurs. I then remembered my values, and how I promised myself to never eavesdrop when I clearly heard my name being spoken by the boy. I got close enough as to faintly hear snippets of what was being said.

“She doesn’t know that I…. Yes, she can…” Ana whispered the last few words so low that I didn’t even hear a thing.

I was dying of curiosity and had to know what Ana had told Yamato. Why hadn’t she told me? I was her best friend, wasn’t I? I decided I would confront Ana when they came back to the living room. I silently walked back there, sat down and waited.

 

The two of them stepped into the living room 5 minutes later. I wasn’t wasting any time, I needed to know.

“What were you talking about?”

Ana shook her head as she sat down. “Nothing important really. Yamato was telling me who could help us.”

“Then why didn’t you talk about it here with me?”

Yamato suddenly seemed really interested by the window as he went over to it and started looking outside. Ana started fiddling her fingers, suddenly looking nervous. I got up and stood in front of her, staring her down with my arms crossed. She just told me it was nothing again, making me more and more impatient. She suddenly looked behind me, in the air, widening her eyes and then staring at me. I frowned and slowly turned around, but there was nothing, just a little bowl on a cabinet that made a little noise as if it had just been moved. I turned back around to look at Ana and she just sighed.

“I guess I can tell you… Follow me.”

She exited the living room and I followed her. We went in a bedroom and she closed the door behind me. She then turned off all the lights and walked somewhere. I started being scared.

“Ana, stop, you know I’m terrified of the dark.”

“Trust me” She answered, sounding like she was far away in a corner, but her voice was soft, trying to calm me down.

I stood there, waiting for something to happen, and nothing much did for a few moments, and I heard a few clicking noises, like someone snapping their tongue. Next thing I know I saw a light behind me. Ana was outside of the room.

“How’d you do that so fast?” I asked, stunned.

“I can echolocate. Like bats, dolphins and whales.”

My mouth gaped wide open. My best friend had an ability? So that’s what she was talking about with Yamato, she found out she wasn’t alone.

“Since when have you known this?”

“I can’t remember a time where I never did it.” Ana responded, looking satisfied with my reaction.

“So all this time you knew and never told me? Why?” I was really wondering. After all, we had been friends for 4 years now, she knew she could tell me anything.

The young woman shrugged. “Never really got around to telling you I suppose.”

I was about to add something else when the doorbell rang. I heard the front door opening and a girl talking to Yamato. My companion and I walked to the front door and were greeted by a small blond girl. She waved at us, her movements slow and gracious. She looked like a fairy and I could see her glowing, or maybe that was just me. I didn’t realize I was just standing there observing our guest until Ana elbowed me.

“Ana, Keela. This is Eulalia. She’s the one who should be able to help us.” Yamato said.

I shook Eulalia’s hand and suddenly my mind was overwhelmed, screaming that her hand was incredibly soft, but I just ignored my weird brain. We all headed back to the living room, discussed random things and then actually got on to what we were here for: the rock. After a good 20 minutes, we had a solid plan. It was time to finally embark on our real journey.


	5. Chapter 4

We really were in the middle of nowhere. To the right, mountains. To the left, more mountains. Behind me, ditto. Just mountains and basically nothingness. We had been walking for only half an hour and I was getting tired, but then I remembered the rock and how it could lead me to my biological parents and my body was filled with energy. Ana and Yamato were ahead and talking to one another and Eulalia and I were behind. I had been trying to find something to talk about, but couldn’t find anything interesting apart from “how’s the weather?” which seemed way too boring, so there was an awkward silence between us. I looked around and saw a bee whizzing around and remembered a joke my brother told me.

“Hey, what do you call a wasp?”

Eulalia was zoned out and looked very relaxed, enjoying the silence and the nature. I had just popped her bubble and she looked disturbed, but still responded with a soft “what?”

“A wanna-bee!” I burst out laughing, mostly because of how ridiculous the joke was.

Eulalia let out a cackle and threw her head back slightly and grinned at me.

“I have a joke too, want to hear it?” She added.

I nodded my head up and down and she told me a pun. I stopped right in the middle of the road, laughing my little heart out. The next half hour flew by as me and the young woman kept exchanging puns. At the end of it, I had teared up about five times and my stomach had gotten a real workout.

 

That’s when I saw someone in front of us, heading down the mountain path. It was a guy with a horse and he looked like a postman. He just walked by us, acting like it was totally normal for him to be carrying a bag full of mail in the middle of nowhere.

After that weird sight, I glanced at Eulalia and burst out laughing at the strangeness of it all.

 

We arrived at the rock a few moments later. I looked at it and looked at my new friends. Finally, I would hopefully get information about my parents. I walked up to the boulder and examined it. I examined every single knack and cranny, looking at every single marking carefully. I suddenly saw something, a very faded carving, but still there nonetheless. I brushed my fingers on it. “C. Willoughby, 1987.” That’s all it said. I was so excited about this discovery that I called over Ana, almost squealing. She looked at it with me, and I could tell by her look that she analyzing it, considering what to do next so this finding wasn’t in vain. I left her to her thing and looked around. We were atop a small hill, and we could see Estes Park in the distance, and the only difference was the town. More modernized, with more cars, more people, but the differences ended there. Everything else resembled the picture. To the right, there was a peculiar arrangement of rocks, and the more I looked at them, the more they looked like a chair.

I stepped closely to it, and saw a tattered looking sign, barely holding on anymore that said “The Wishing Chair”. I chose to sit down, closed my eyes and concentrated all my thoughts on finding my biological parents, or at least discovering what they had become. I got disturbed by Ana, who tapped me on the shoulder.

“I didn’t find anything.” She said, looking down at her feet, defeated. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more useful.”

I got up, grabbed Ana and hugged her tightly.

“You are useful, I promise. We’re finally having the adventure we always dreamed about when we were young, and I’m glad it’s with you.” I whispered in her ear, reassuring her.

She tightened her grip on me, as if to thank me. I pulled back and assembled everyone as the sun was setting and Ana and I had to get back home. I was sad we hadn’t found anything useless, and slightly felt like we would never find my real parents. We walked away, defeated, and went down the small hill we had gone up earlier where we had seen the mailman. I noticed that the more we walked, the more Eulalia was getting fidgety. I looked at her, concern in my look and she glanced at me and looked back straight ahead, trying to look confident, but I knew she wasn’t. I approached her and nudged her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfectly fine. I’m peachy.” She stuttered.

“Do you know how to get back?”

She stopped abruptly in the middle of the road and started sputtering out words.

“Look, I don’t know how to get back, and we’re lost, we’re going to get eaten, or worse we’ll die of starvation or hunger because of me.” Eulalia breathed, as she had said everything so fast without taking a break. The sky got dark and I heard a sound of thunder as she was talking.

Yamato looked worriedly at the sky. He arrived by the young woman’s side and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s try and find a shelter, alright?”

Eulalia breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. The thunder and dark clouds went away once she had calmed down.

 

We followed Yamato since we had agreed with what he had told the blond girl. Being out here in the middle of the mountains during the night wasn’t the safest thing. We were still walking around, not seeing anything when I saw it. A small hut, in the distance. I frowned, not remembering having seen it when we were walking to the rock earlier.  I told the others and we marched towards it. It was a small semi-circle house made of stones. It looked really old, like everything in these mountains, but it was our only choice.

I approached the open door carefully. It didn’t seem like there was anyone in here, so I walked it. The air was filled with dust and there were a ton of insects. Nonetheless, I urged my friends inside, and Yamato closed the door. Now, here’s the weird thing. When we turned back around, there was now a big room, with a lot of big windows, and there was a man there, and he was looking down at a dozen flasks on a table. He then walked to the end of the table and turned a handle. He looked up and saw us, and instead of being startled that 4 teenagers were currently standing in his house, he just gave us a fierce look.

 

“We’re… We’re sorry we didn’t know anyone lived here…” I hardly stuttered out.

He kept looking as us, and I felt really intimidated, but then he sighed and turned the handle a bit more, wiped his hands on his apron and walked up to us.

“What do you kids want? I’m not giving any candles, you have to pay for ‘em, you know that.” He said in a low gravelly voice.

I slowly approached the old man and introduced myself. My friends walked behind me and did the same.

“We are extremely sorry for disturbing you.” I let out. “But we needed a shelter for the night and we’re lost.”

The old man looked at us weirdly, wondering what I was blabbing on about. Ana said we were lost in the mountains and were wondering if he had any directions to give us, but the man didn’t seem to get what we were talking about. I think after a while he gave up and turned around to get back to his work, when he seemed to have an illumination and turned around and pointed at me.

“You. What did you say your name was again?”

I looked at the old man, his shaking finger in front of me.

“It’s Keela. Keela Thom… Willoughby. Keela Willoughby, sir.”

He slowly lowered his arm and looked at me, and only me for a good ten seconds. He nodded to himself and walked away, leaving us standing there. We waited and he trotted back, holding a picture.

 

It was the portrait of a young woman, and she was smiling at the camera. Her eyes were compelling me and I grabbed the photograph.

 

 

“What’s her name?” I asked, pulling my eyes away from the image.

“This is a cousin of mine. She is named Joslynn Hates, but she took on her husband’s last name. Her real surname is Willoughby, just like you.”

I looked in awe and the old man. How was this possible? How could we have stumbled across this man, who just so happened to know someone with my surname?

“You, young girl. You are very special. You have an incredible ability and are unaware of your strength.”

I stared at him, not agreeing with him. I wasn’t strong, nor was I special. I spoke out my thoughts and felt Ana coming from behind and hugging me lightly. I turned around and weakly smiled at her.

“You will soon discover your gift. I hope you make good use of it.” He paused. “Now, I will lead you to your room for the night. Hope you don’t mind sharing a room.”

We all shook our heads at him, saying it wasn’t necessary, that we couldn’t accept, but he insisted. We followed him down a dimly lit corridor and went into a small room. This would have to do for the night. He left the room quickly and gave back five minutes later holding four hot drinks. We thanked him heaps, and he shushed us, telling us to stop thanking him for his hospitality.

 

I snuggled into my blanket, lying on the floor with Ana. A candle was illuminating the whole room and the flame was dancing on the walls. My best friend turned to me, whispering as Eulalia and Yamato were already asleep.

“You know, what that man said is true. You are stronger than you think.”

I shook my head lightly from side to side. “I’m really not. You three have amazing abilities while I’m here being the outcast, like always.”

Ana let out a slight giggle. “You really don’t know, do you?”

I frowned at her, not knowing what she meant. She carefully got up, keeping her blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the candle.

“Follow me” She opened the door and I followed her lead.

We went back to the room we first arrived in, and she grabbed a piece of paper from the old man’s desk and put it down on the ground in front of me.

“Focus your energy on this piece of paper. All of your energy must go into it.”

I looked at her and snickered. What was she talking about? She wanted me to focus on a chunk of paper? I shook my head in disbelief at how ridiculous she could be.

“C’mon, Keela. I’m serious here, no kiddin’.”

I brought myself back to reality and did as she said. At first, nothing happened, as you expect. But then the paper slightly wiggled, as if it had suddenly become alive. Ana gasped and urged me to continue. I was suddenly intrigued and concentrated all my energy again. It slowly rose up a few centimeters off the ground and flopped back down. I made it rise again, and every time it was flying higher and higher. It kind of looked like a leaf falling, but backwards. I stared at it once it was near the ceiling, in awe, and imagined it turning around, and it did. I made it float around the air, made it fold into a paper plane and fly right at Ana and she ducked, laughing. I was stunned, but I kept going, feeling like I had done this my entire life. I grabbed more pieces of paper, folded them in more paper planes with my mind and soon there were a dozen paper planes, flying around the room. I was smiling so hard my cheeks were hurting. I was doing that, me. Keela Willoughby, I was able to control objects telekinetically. I soon ended the whole charade and made all the paper planes fly into the trash can. After my little show was done, Ana put down the candle on the table and ran at me, grinning and threw her arms around me.

“You did it!” She let go of me and jumped around, like a kid on a Christmas morning. “You actually did it!”

I nodded excitedly and suddenly stepped back, almost falling backwards. Ana grabbed me and asked me if I was alright.

“I just feel a bit weak. It’s normal I guess; I just did something I never knew I could do.”

Ana nodded, still looking at me like a proud mother. We walked back to our room and when I closed my eyes, I immediately fell asleep, knocked out.


	6. Chapter 5

I woke up to an empty room. I stood up, rubbing my eyes and then stretching out. I got up and dragged myself to the principal room, where my friends were, speaking in cheery voices with the old man. He was talking about his job as a candle maker, and how it had been a family tradition carried on for years. I weakly waved at everyone and they said good morning. The candle maker had made breakfast for us, and I was so impressed by his kindness. I thanked him and got on to eating.

“So, your friend over here told us you did quite the trick this night.” The man said, looking at me with a small sly smile.

I nodded in agreement, proud. Everything had felt like a dream, but I remembered it had actually happened. I showed them and made a glass of water float slowly in the air and brought it back down.

“See, he told you that you were special” said Yamato, looking at me proudly.

We continued talking about nothing and everything. I ended up learning that the old man’s name was Jerry. Jerry kept telling us stories of things he had gone through and they were really entertaining and fascinating, but we had to go. I asked him for directions on where we could go and he looked at us mischievously and just said to follow the river. We all looked oddly at him, not having seen any river in the mountains, but trusted him nonetheless. We thanked him again for his generosity and walked up to the front door. I opened it and was blinded by the light. I stepped outside and so did my friends and then I noticed something was off. We weren’t in the mountains, not at all. We were in a completely different area, in front of a museum with a school bus full of kids. We turned around, but only saw apartments. The hut and Jerry were gone.

“Okay, everyone, gather round” said Eulalia. She was really applying the elder role by guiding us. “Jerry said to follow the river, so I think we should ask around to where there’s a river. There is no way there isn’t any around here.”

So that’s what we did. We got to work and after asking to one person we got clear directions. We found it odd because the person had an English accent and we had been in Colorado just a day ago. I wasn’t really surprised anymore by everything magical that was happening since we had met Jerry. We began our march to the river and found it after half an hour. We followed it, like Jerry had told us and after a little while we were right in front of the ocean. We definitely were not in Colorado anymore. People of all ages were enjoying a sunny day at the beach. We were speechless, since we had not expected any of this. We started walking down the beach when I saw something that caught my eye. There was a man in the water, with a small boat and he was just making it float, pushing it to entertain kids that were nearby.

I urged the others to go see him and so we did. He saw us and nodded his head as a hello, but then he looked at me as if he recognized me, which was odd.

“Are you from here?” He asked me with a slight Irish accent.

I shook my head from side to side and he explained himself.

“You see, you look a lot like the niece of a friend of mine who lives on an island nearby.”

My heart immediately started beating faster at what he had just said.

“Who?”

“Carl Willoughby. Good friend of mine.”

I looked at my friends and jumped in excitement. Carl Willoughby, the one who had written C. Willoughby on the rock! I was tearing up from how happy I was, hugging my friends. This had to be it. This had to be my father. I calmed down, laughing from the excitement. The man wasn’t staring at us judgingly, but was actually smiling from seeing our happiness. He proposed to get us there with his boat and I immediately accepted. There was no way I was missing out on this opportunity. Eulalia was the only one who wasn’t so fond of the idea and she told us why as we were waiting for the boat.

“With my ability to control electricity, I’ve always been terrified of water. Are we going to be alright?” She said worriedly.

I put my hand on her lower back and brought her close to me, rubbing her back.

“Everything will be alright.” I said smiling down at her. She smiled back and snuggled into me.

The man came back and we followed him to his boat, we boarded it and a few moments later we had set sail. He told us it was about an hour and a half away, and the weather was perfect so we shouldn’t run into any problem. My friends went and saw down, chatting up while I was in front of the boat, looking at a black spot on the horizon. That was the island. I started thinking. How had my parents met? How come my dad’s name was on the rock all the way in Colorado? How come we had actually teleported? And then I kept telling myself: what if? What if I’m wrong, what if there isn’t anyone that I know on that island? What if my biological parents are dead, what if I never find out about them? So many questions were filling my brain. I thought of my adoptive mothers and brother. I missed them, even though yesterday I was still slightly annoyed at them. I thought of what had happened at my house, and that’s when it clicked. I suddenly sprung out of my seat and marched quickly to Ana, grabbed her arm, pulling her away from her conversation with Yamato. She complained, saying I had hurt her, but I didn’t care. I started spurring out my thoughts.

“My power. What happened at my house. Me passing out, me being weak last night when I used my power. Do you see where I’m heading at?”

Ana looked lost for a second, but then it clicked for her too.

“I did that to my house, I passed out because my power is too powerful for me to handle and that was the first time I had ever used it.” I did a little jump. “Ana! Do you realize this, I know what happened and I know why I passed out and why everything happened and…”

Ana shushed me and told me to take my breath back. I was just really excited to finally have the answer to a question that had been tearing my mind apart. My best friend was about to add something when Mark, the boat man, called us all to the main deck. He showed us how the boat wasn’t advancing anymore and Eulalia started panicking and walked away. Yamato followed her to go and calm her down.

“You don’t know what’s wrong with it?” I asked Mark, frowning worriedly.

He shook his head. We were stuck in the middle of the sea. Or so I thought until Ana elbowed me and did a fancy thing with her hands, a silent message telling me to use my power. I widened my eyes at her. There was no way I could make a boat this big move!

“Mark, may I take a look? I happen to know a thing or two about boats. My dad taught me a lot.” Ana courtly said to Mark. He nodded, saying he would go try and find a manual or something to help us. He left the cabin with the wheel and all the commands and Ana grabbed me by both shoulders.

“Keela, you can do it. I know you can. Look what you did to your house! You can move a boat, plus we’re about fifteen minutes away!” She shook my shoulders slightly as she talked.

I didn’t agree nor disagree. She had a point, I had moved a lot of things in my house, but I had also passed out when I had done so. What would happen if I moved something this big? I was scared of the consequences, and was also scared we’d never end up going to the island, but I shut down my fear. I nodded at Ana and looked straight ahead in front of us. I imagined the back of the boat, sleek and shiny, the rudder cutting through the waves. I concentrated all my energy on this image, on imagining the ship moving, telling myself it was leading me to my family, even though I was scared of not finding anyone on the island. That last thought gave me strength and courage nonetheless and the ship started moving, slowly but surely. We were moving, we were on the way to seeing my real family. Mark came back up and I heard Ana slamming the door of the cabin so he wouldn’t see me standing there with my arms stretched wide open. I didn’t hear anything she told him as I was solely concentrating on making the ship move. Five minutes passed, and I was feeling a bit lightheaded, but was still holding on, making the ship move. Ana must’ve found a way to distract Mark so he wouldn’t come in here and I mentally thanked her. I saw the island appear as we got closer and stared at it, not being able to fathom the fact that I had made it. My family was there, living in one of those houses, had gone to that beach, had always seen that lighthouse. Well, at least I hoped they had had.

 

I really started to wonder why my mom and dad had moved there. Why did they exile themselves? I started thinking less and less about the boat moving and it was starting to slow down, so I went back to focusing all my energy to getting us to that island.

 

Somehow, we made it to the landmass and when the boat stopped, I fell to the ground, on the verge of throwing up and passing out.  I heard a quick bang as the door opened and Ana rushed in. I looked at her and she was the last thing I saw before I saw darkness.


	7. Chapter 6

I opened my eyes. I was on the boat deck and the sun was shining brightly in my eyes. I squeezed them close and Ana, who was sitting next to me, called the others and Mark telling them I had woken up. I straightened myself and sat up, leaning on Ana as my body hurt so much. The others gave me the time to gather back my strength and Mark gave me something to eat and drink. I thanked him, in awe at the generosity of people whom had helped us. We gathered our things, ready to head out to the island and going to my biological parents’ house when Mark stopped me and handed me an old picture. It was two twin boys, both holding a tennis racket and their older sister, on Christmas morning surrounded by presents.

“Carl gave me this once, and I never really knew why. It’s him with his brother and sister. I thought it was my duty to give it to you.”

I looked at Mark and hugged him. Even if he was a complete stranger, he had helped us so much and I was so happy. He laughed and rubbed my back. I let go of him and got off his boat and then he set off. I looked at the picture between my hands and smiled. This was my aunt, uncle and my dad. My actual dad. And we were about to go see him. I put the photograph in my backpack and joined my friends. We knew where to go, and since the island was fairly small, we walked there. We approached a small white house, with a lot of greenery and flowers in the front yard. I stopped abruptly in front of it. This was happening, this was real. I was about to finally meet my biological parents. My friends all got behind me and I looked at all of them individually.

 

I walked down the path to the house and walked up the few stairs. I knocked at the door and waited. I heard footsteps and the door opened to a man around his fifties, with a bit of stubble and some grey hairs. He looked at me, clearly trying to place me, and I looked at him too. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“Hi, I’m Keela. Keela Willoughby.”

He widened his eyes suddenly, and looked at me again, making sure this was real.

“Keela? Carl’s daughter? My brother talked about you so much.” He responded.

My mind went blank. He had said my brother, he talked about me like I wasn’t his daughter. Wasn’t this my dad?

“You are Carl, right? I’m… my god I was certain my dad lived here, this is a surprise to me…” I let out weakly.

“No, I’m afraid I’m not Carl but John, his brother. Why don’t you lot come in and we can discuss this all over a cup of tea?”

We all accepted and entered the small house. Someone ran down the stairs and I saw a girl younger than me staring at all of us, frozen at the bottom of the stairs. My uncle turned around and looked at my cousin.

“Karis, this is your cousin, Keela. And this is her friends I assume...?” He turned to us and looked at me for an answer and I nodded in agreement. Karis waved at us shyly and climbed back upstairs. Mark was right, she looked like me.

John lead us into the living room while he went and got some tea. He came back a few moments later with five steaming cups of tea and put down the tray on the table. He sat down and we all grabbed our cups and started to sip.

“So your father.” He nodded to himself. “Carl Willoughby. Great man he is. I’m afraid you won’t find him here though.” He sipped and put down his jug on the table. “You see, your dad is… an interesting person. He always wanted to explore, always wanted to do something great. And he did a lot of that with your mother, that he did. They went all over America, first meeting in Colorado which is where they went back when your mother had you. But they really had not expected a baby, and couldn’t keep you.” He leaned down on his knees and stared straight at me, his hands crossed. “Your parents were special Keela, and I assume you are too, aren’t you?”

I nodded in agreement and he proceeded.

“Long story short, your parents wanted to explore, and they couldn’t do that with a kid. You got adopted, they left and the rest is history. Your dad came back here a few times to see me and to see his niece, but I haven’t seen him in a little bit. He’s somewhere out there, still adventuring and exploring.”

I looked down at my feet, trying to absorb the information I had just received. Eulalia randomly screamed out that we had gone through so much to get here. John asked what had happened and my friends proceeded to recount our journey, with Ana telling him how I had destroyed my entire house from discovering I was adopted to our tales in Jerry’s hut, to getting here with the help of Mark. At the end of it all, our cups of tea were still standing there, gone cold because we had talked so much.

John let out a small laugh at the end of our tale. “I guess your parents passed down the gene to you, because it sounds like you had quite the adventure.”

I grinned and nodded. He got up to pick up our cups of tea and I sprung out my seat and hugged him. He was slightly taken aback by this, but hugged me back nonetheless and I felt more people coming behind me, hugging me. My friends. I snuggled in my uncle’s arms.

 

I always had dreamed of an adventure. As a child, reading the Tales of Lynn made me crave adventure, made me want to get out more of my comfort zone and be courageous, just like Lynn. I had dreamed of going on a journey, and I had arrived at the end of it. I went over this whole thing in my mind and smiled to myself. I was here, happy, surrounded by people who loved me and supported me. I was home. 


	8. Epilogue

I stayed with my uncle for a few days and he told me all about our ancestors.  Most of them stayed here in Britain, but a lot had moved to America, just like Kaila Willoughby, my great-great-grand-mother, had done.

 

I wanted to stay badly, but I had to go back. My friends and I had some money for plane tickets, but it was mostly my uncle that helped us get back. We thanked him heaps, and I gave him one last hug, promising to try and come back. We arrived in Colorado, split ways with Yamato and Eulalia, promising them too that we’d see each other again. I hugged Eulalia a little longer, having grown fond of her in a maybe more than friendly way. I was worried to go back home, wondering if my moms and my brother would forgive me. When I stepped in my house, my mothers were standing there, waiting for me. They saw me and jumped at me, hugging and kissing me. They called Mitchell and he ran to the front door, throwing his arms around me. They asked me what had happened, and I apologized millions of times and recounted all of my plights. They gasped and were in awe, and at the end they all hugged me some more, saying how proud they were of me. After that, I went back to my normal life, keeping in touch with my uncle, Yamato and Eulalia over emails. My new friends came to visit me and Ana a few times. I finished high school that year. Everything was normal.

 

And if something ever moved without being touched, as if picked up by an invisible person, nobody ever noticed a thing.


End file.
